Henry V/A Woman Killed with Kindness

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AT FIRST sight there seems little thematic logic behind the Northern Broadsides pairing of these two Jacobethan dramas. Shakespeare’s is a glorification of an English king who sets off to punish the French for daring to dispute his right to grab their throne; Thomas Heywood’s domestic tragedy, never stepping outside Yorkshire, presents a husband’s refusal to take up arms against his wife and her lover, instead letting this refusal be her punishment and a mortification that must lead to her death.

But it is only afterwards that matters of connection and contrast present themselves. During performance each play carries us